Count Keyserling again disavowed the charge of anti-Semitic prejudice levelled against him by Emil Ludwig in the controversy between the two German authors now lecturing in the United States, in a telegraphic reply to a telegram sent him by the New York World informing him of Ludwig’s denial in the Vossische Zeitung of Berlin that he had made unjustified statements about Princess Bismarck (granddaughter of the former Chancellor and wife of the Count), and reasserting the Count’s alleged anti-Semitic prejudices.
“As to my so-called anti-Semitism,” Count Keyserling states in his telegram, “I qualified my philosemitism, saying I admire good type of Jews. Have no sympathy for bad type of any nation and any type inferior who lost his roots.
“Emil Ludwig naturally hates me because, reviewing his Bismarch book in my Weg zur Vollendung, I called it ‘the autobiography of a Jew who had lost his roots under a misleading title.’ I proceeded that, owing to ample quotations, image Iron Chancellor stands out unimpaired, but within these walls of granite the comments of Ludwig, proving absolute misunderstanding of a type beyond his comprehension, present most illuminating self-revelation. To that extent I strongly recommend the book.”
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